AWE: Viewing the third
May. 29th, 2007 07:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizzie_omalleyI love this movie. As the Dala says, I feel that I have my story back.
This movie has political tones for our times and whether that is accidental or intentional I don't know. I rather suspect it is not an accident.
From the first scene where the sergent at arms, or what ever he, is is reading the emergency suspension of rights, substitute the word terrorist for the word pirate and you have our present day situation. I love the combination that whenever the word suspended is read, the lever is pulled and the "pirates" fall. There is an implication there that anyone can be decalred a beggar or a thief at any time according to the needs of the people (read East India Company in this case, AKA Beckett) in power.
The notion that honesty and integrity don't matter in the world of "good business" fits with my notion of many (not all, most likely never all) of the corporate players of today. Note: I have to say, that the notion that honor and intergrity don't matter in good business is a false notion as well. It is perhap a cynical view to think that most corporate boards of directors have lost the notion of honor in favor of treasure but it is a view I hold none-the-less. Boards of directors have no heart. In Lord Cutler Becket we have this represntation set in a heartless single person. I like the juxtipostion of the genuinely heartless monster, Davy Jones, and the monsterously heartless person in Becket set together to fight against the pirate lot which have to find some generousity and forgiveness for each other in their hearts in order to win.
There is a lot of undercomentary of this sort woven throughout our epic fantasy. For the most part it doesn't slap you upside the head. The closest it comes is the opening scene with the hoist the colors song and the reading of the suspended rights billet. With that set, the movies allows you to enjoy the tale of an epic battle between the greed and generosity knowing, as we do, that not all treasure is silver and gold. There are a lot of stories that can come of that.
The thing I liked about this movie that DMC did not have for me was the epicness of the tale. Where DMC failed me was that it was comic not epic. Both CotBP and AWE have comic moments but T&T have returned to the epic pirate movie and tell their story in a grand way. DMC did not have that element and for that, it failed to capture me. DMC failed to tell the story of how these people came to be cast so far adrift from their original centers and it tried to be a light hearted fluff while not doing it. That the people were so far from their moral centers didn't trouble at all because I think pretty much anyone can be pushed to a point of doing pretty much anything against their nature in the right circumstances. But, DMC tried to push the characters off their centers without showing us how they got there and to package the thing in a slapstick comedy. It didn't work.
DMC also didn't leave me with a voice that allowed me to write the stories that I see hiding in the background. I don't know why that it is; perhaps it is that it was a slapstick parody of a pirate movie. All I know is that I am glad to have my voice back.
And is it just me or does Orlando have the look that he could be Errol Flynn's grandson in this movie? I'm just asking? But man, I may be considerin' commandeering the lad.
This movie has political tones for our times and whether that is accidental or intentional I don't know. I rather suspect it is not an accident.
From the first scene where the sergent at arms, or what ever he, is is reading the emergency suspension of rights, substitute the word terrorist for the word pirate and you have our present day situation. I love the combination that whenever the word suspended is read, the lever is pulled and the "pirates" fall. There is an implication there that anyone can be decalred a beggar or a thief at any time according to the needs of the people (read East India Company in this case, AKA Beckett) in power.
The notion that honesty and integrity don't matter in the world of "good business" fits with my notion of many (not all, most likely never all) of the corporate players of today. Note: I have to say, that the notion that honor and intergrity don't matter in good business is a false notion as well. It is perhap a cynical view to think that most corporate boards of directors have lost the notion of honor in favor of treasure but it is a view I hold none-the-less. Boards of directors have no heart. In Lord Cutler Becket we have this represntation set in a heartless single person. I like the juxtipostion of the genuinely heartless monster, Davy Jones, and the monsterously heartless person in Becket set together to fight against the pirate lot which have to find some generousity and forgiveness for each other in their hearts in order to win.
There is a lot of undercomentary of this sort woven throughout our epic fantasy. For the most part it doesn't slap you upside the head. The closest it comes is the opening scene with the hoist the colors song and the reading of the suspended rights billet. With that set, the movies allows you to enjoy the tale of an epic battle between the greed and generosity knowing, as we do, that not all treasure is silver and gold. There are a lot of stories that can come of that.
The thing I liked about this movie that DMC did not have for me was the epicness of the tale. Where DMC failed me was that it was comic not epic. Both CotBP and AWE have comic moments but T&T have returned to the epic pirate movie and tell their story in a grand way. DMC did not have that element and for that, it failed to capture me. DMC failed to tell the story of how these people came to be cast so far adrift from their original centers and it tried to be a light hearted fluff while not doing it. That the people were so far from their moral centers didn't trouble at all because I think pretty much anyone can be pushed to a point of doing pretty much anything against their nature in the right circumstances. But, DMC tried to push the characters off their centers without showing us how they got there and to package the thing in a slapstick comedy. It didn't work.
DMC also didn't leave me with a voice that allowed me to write the stories that I see hiding in the background. I don't know why that it is; perhaps it is that it was a slapstick parody of a pirate movie. All I know is that I am glad to have my voice back.
And is it just me or does Orlando have the look that he could be Errol Flynn's grandson in this movie? I'm just asking? But man, I may be considerin' commandeering the lad.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 01:47 pm (UTC)::nods:: And you know, so did the Errol Flynn/Michael Curtiz films - "Captain Blood" has Great Depression overtones and Philip II in "The Sea Hawk" is a blatant, obvious, they're-not-even-trying-for subtlety-here stand-in for Adolf Hitler. Frankly I appreciate AWE for its more delicate hand. And I just realized the nice juxtaposition of the monologue and the action - as the lackey reads "suspended," the bodies are suspended on the ropes.
Furthermore, people who are complaining that the concept of pirates=freedom (many of the professional critics for example) is incorrect/PC need to brush up on their history. Pirate crews were democratic, with captains elected and courses charted by majority vote; they had a social security system, for crying out loud. Many honest sailors mutinied or deserted in the late 17th/early 18th century because they were brutally treated by naval and merchant captains and had absolutely no legal rights to challenge those authorities. Why did the articles on pirate ships often contain stipulations about sharing food and drink equally? Because ordinary sailors often starved.
...Er, sorry. I need to take this to my own post. It's just that this is something the movies actually get very right, and they're rarely given credit for it. Yes, pirates stole and tortured and killed and could rightly be called terrorists - but the navy and merchant sailing classes were terrorists too.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 02:19 pm (UTC)Any absolute power corrupts. We are all arogant enough to think that our way is the best way, even when it is not. Often especially when it is not. In order that cooler heads can prevail, we need to have systems in place where the cooler heads can speak without their being lopped off by an ultimate power. It may seem more efficient to have a king but efficient is not always better.
Yes, pirates were not pargons of purity and they had no patience with the rich or or the bougious, people who were complacent and complicit in the system but they were an interesting culture. I don't know nearly as much about them as you do and I would love to see your post.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:14 pm (UTC)Have you heard about the anti-whaling ship that is now a pirate ship? Because of pressure from whaling nations, they lost affiliation with a country and are now pirates. They have embraced that, have a pirate flag, and are still out there protecting the whales.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:54 pm (UTC)All activists that have the audacity to stand up to authority are terrorists in the eyes of the authority and have always been so. They may have been called pirates, profiteers, rebels, outlaws and brigands but they have one common element, they stood against the authority. Do not misunderstand, I do not think all outlaws are rebels against the authority. Some are nothing more than theives who do not want to dress up and play within the system or who can't run in the proper circles due to social standing to rob in a legalized way. What I am saying is that the powers that be will paint all of these peoples in the same color stroke. This is in part because it confuses the masses who do not want their simple lives disrupted and they don't know who the bad guys really are. It is also in part because the powers that be often can't or won't see the difference between the two. Mostly it is the first.
Fear sells. It is the most powerful motivator out there. Keep people scared of a boogey man and they will swallow almost anything.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 07:13 pm (UTC)That's a great quote. Robbing in a legalized way. Kind of like oil executives, eh?
On a related note, I was sad to see that Cindy Sheehan has given up her anti-war work. The war barons did her in.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:57 pm (UTC)